NRF reported that more than 33,000 individuals, 3300 retailers and 94 countries were represented at the NRF BiG Show 2017, in NYC's Jacob Javitz Conference Center, January 15 -17, 2017. The top theme – enabling the blending of the digital and physical so that customers can engage with retailers in the stream of life. Technologies featured included everything from shopping at home via voice interactions through completely automated biometric based purchases.

The biggest draw for retailers:

Technologies that enable smarter omnichannel business, which start with collecting, analyzing and augmenting more data from more touchpoints to drive better real time decision processes - that ultimately drive the best experiences.

I just returned from NRF 2017--where the retail information technology community converged to chart the course for the year ahead and beyond. I went to test my point of view that applying artificial intelligence in retail isn't science fiction nor needs to be a science project. I came away more convinced than ever that it's time for action. Here's a snapshot of what I found.

Whether you call it artificial intelligence (AI) or cognitive computer, there was plenty of evidence at NRF 2017 that AI is the next best action for retailers looking to improve performance across marketing and customer engagement, merchandising and assortment, omni-channel commerce, and supply chain and operations. Looking at that expansive remit might cause a dilution of effort and blurring of focus—threatening two important prerequisites for success. While the opportunity calls for caution,…

Retail leaders determined to disrupt and create sustainable competitive advantage will engage in digital transformation (DX). They will recognize that digital transformation is much more than applying incremental technologies at the edge to create new experiences. Digital transformation requires holistic redesign of business strategy/leadership, business processes, human engagement (workforce and others), information monetization, and technology.

The shift is exponential. More than requiring social, mobile, big data/analytics, and cloud technologies, transformation requires new ways of working and new ways of putting IT to work. More important still, sustaining competitive advantage requires reinvention at two levels — the microlevel of performing tasks and macrolevel of designing and executing strategy. Success at both levels of disruption will require the appropriate amalgam of innovation accelerators — artificial intelligence…

This blog analyzes the results of testing out a new class of cognitive/AI software — natural language processing analytics focused on understanding the personality behind unstructured text. That personality might be any public or social figure, a brand, or some form of commercial speech. In this instance, we had IBM Watson Personality Insights assess the personalities of the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees by applying linguistic analytics and personality theory to their convention acceptance speeches. We recount Watson's findings, identify important caveats, and assess how this type of analysis can help retailers improve their brand voice, customer interactions, and B2B corporate communications.

Introduction

Cognitive/AI software solutions include a broad range functionality to address the needs of organizations and individuals to make sense and uncover insights from vast amounts of structured data, unstructured text, and rich media content. IDC's view of these components is presented in IDC TechScape: Cognitive Systems Technologies, 2016 (IDC #US41005816, February 2016). One of these technologies is natural language processing.

I channeled James Carville to title this piece. Back in 1992 he earned notoriety by keeping his candidate's campaign focused on one issue with the mantra, "It's the Economy, stupid!" The stories I've seen in the general business press about the recent spate of poor earnings posted by some leading retailers miss the mark. It's the digital transformation, stupid!

The number of major participants consumers will support in any particular category is shrinking. Deloitte reports that over the last five years the top 25 retailers in the U.S. lost nearly percent of market share, $64B. They're not trading share among themselves but losing it to a long-tail of e-commerce and omni-channel specialty retailers. Why? Digital transformation.

Barriers to scale are falling while barriers to creating a defendable experience are in flux. There's plenty of promising…

With the Holiday Spirit in full swing, many of us have found ways to give back to our communities. Giving often comes in the form of one of 3 T's:- Time- Treasure- Talent

With work and families, time can be hard to come by, but when we can visit elderly homes or help in our local food shelf pantries, or delivery meals to less mobile, the benefits know no bounds. Time feels harder to come by at this time of year, but finding that time can mean the world to those who need help.

Treasure is often construed in the format of monetary donations. This can be contributing to a giving tree, donations to some of your favorite charities, a donation to a place in which…

Is the fact that payments fraudsters will have to go online to perpetrate crimes against your customers if EMV capabilities are implemented in store really a good rationalization for not moving forward with new EMV payments terminals and fully encrypted payments processes? If you had water leaking from a hose in two places, would you not fix one problem, for fear the water pressure would push more water through the other hole? Well, perhaps in the latter case, you would buy a new hose, and there is a similar corollary in retail payments. Multiple security holes should be treated with multiple tactics to improve enterprise security, but every attempt should be made to secure transactions and data everywhere vulnerabilities exist. There is absolutely a cost consideration at hand, but there is an even greater risk of not doing everything possible to plug the big holes.

Investing in new payments terminals and implementing new payments processes is costly and time-consuming, but if retailers don’t seize this opportunity to close this door to fraud, they continue to be sitting ducks – just waiting for a fraudster to breach their best efforts to secure customer data. But now that the October 1, 2015 liability shift date has come and gone, stores will be liable for in-store fraud, and this stands to be very expensive when it occurs since recent breaches impacted…

Emarsys, the biggest marketing cloud you've never heard of, asked me to join their panel at Advertising Week a couple of days ago. After meeting several members of their new marketing team, brought aboard ahead of the 15 year-old company's Series A round led by Vector Capita in mid-September, I knew my investment of time would be well worth it. I wasn't disappointed. Here's a recap of that session and others I attended over a quick 24 hours running between theaters in Time Square—ground zero for AW XII.

Emarsys Sheds Its Outer Cloak

Like I said Emarsys is the biggest marketing cloud you've never heard of, but that's if you just take a provincial North American point of view, and let's face it, that POV can be debilitating. While only now putting muscle behind its presence in North American, Emarsys has over 1 billion customer records worldwide. Despite adhering to Emarsys strict anti-spamming protocol, its 1,500 customers across 140 countries ranging from eBay and Rakuten to Volvo and Canon,…

I just published an IDC PlanScape report—an executive "why, what, who, how" guide to seizing leadership in health hearth personal services webs (PSW). (IDC PlanScape: Health Hearth Personal Services Webs—Transforming Lives and Industries, #258015, August 2015) To unpack that label, I see financial, loyalty, operational, and brand differentiation opportunities for retail, CPG, health insurance, and publishing enterprises in immersing the food, drug, nutritional customer in a persistent ecosystem of software, devices, apps, content, and online services to help their households eat better, easier at less cost, effort, and time. Nascent PSWs that will be directed at these and other personal domains are emerging in the iOS, Android, Amazon, and Google ecosystems. Compared to the capabilities of PSWs I foresee in 2020 today's capabilities will seem more akin to the PalmPilot than a smartphone.

The Bottom Line

Companies taking leadership positions creating health hearth personal services webs will gain the opportunity to out-uber Uber. Think about it, Uber changes how you use a taxi. Here, companies can help their customers pare down their monthly grocery expenses, save time and effort on shopping chores, and care for themselves and their loved ones day in and day out. Participants will differentiate to increase their revenue, efficiency, and customer loyalty through the utilization…